Rumour: Rossi wants a Honda?

THE rumours have been spreading from Italy that Valentino Rossi wants an escape from the struggles at Ducati and a return to Honda.

The MotoGP holiday period has been awash with rumours that Rossi will relinquish his attempts at winning on a Ducati as the Italian has approached Honda for his own independent entry for 2012.

A possible scenario purported was a supposed swap deal between Rossi and Marco Simoncelli and Ducati to Gresini.

The Italian media sourced the information from the current factory Honda rider's - vocal - personal manager Carlo Pernat and the news was further fanned by former Gresini rider Marco Melandri, who said that Rossi had been in talks with Fausto Gresini about taking the factory-Honda place - something the Italian has now back-tracked on saying that he was 'kidding'.

The question is whether Honda would have Rossi back, after leaving the manufacturer with bad-blood to move to Yamaha. However, HRC vice-president Shuhei Nakamoto said in 2009 that Honda would be happy to take him back. The other block for the switch back to a Honda would be whether Ducati would allow Rossi to end his two-year contract early.

As renowned journalist Dennis Noyes observed on Twitter crazier things have happened, he noted that no-one expected Eddie Lawson to go to Honda in the late 80s.

Will Rossi go? Probably not, there is a greater chance that this is a way to get Ducati to abandon the carbon chassis and get the changes he requires.

Discuss this story

Saw Dennis Noyes tweeting about it. Also, there was something mentioned about Marco Melandri talking about it. But it was all in Italian, and I don't speak Italian. Crazier things have happened, but, Rossi is no quitter. I suspect the carbon frame will be ditched first...

But, I would give them a while yet, at least until the end of this season..

,, Why would Marco or anyone agree to a Ducati ride,, only if they never want to win.. This is getting more pathetic by the Day.. I hope that Rossi and everyone else on Ducati leaves that bike and gets a competitive ride.

I knew from day one that VR should have never left Yamaha,, Just another superstar with an ego that ruined another career.

If memory serves me, didn't the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) demand Bridgestone tires a while back? I believe it was when an Aussie named Stoner was doing none too shabby. Of course Rossi wants a Honda. At this moment, who in MotoGP wouldn't want one?

Rossi left because teammate Jorge was beating him repeatedly (not good for the VR46 business/legend) and being younger offers potentially more future championships.
An attractive prospect to Yamaha the spaniard is.
Meaning Rossi was to effectively become the 2nd rider at Yamaha.
So he had to leave Yamaha and had burnt the bridges at Honda prior to that.
How many other bikes are there in motogp that have shown they can win races consistently? Suzi?,Kawi? ha ha ha, yeah right!

Ducati was his only option. Well he thought it was an option,
at least the merchandising will overcome the costs of running around midfield for Ducati.

"How many other bikes are there in motogp that have shown they can win races consistently? Suzi?,Kawi? ha ha ha, yeah right!"

Sorry a what??? What's a Kawi please???

Not hear that HRC would be open to listen to offers fron Vale and his squad about a return should he ever consider it. HRC have moved on from all that handbag's and nonsense from years ago. Shame the rumour mongers haven't...

I think that production bikes with Ducati logo're gaining more value due to Rossi's struggle with GP11/11.1/12 because they now mean if you can ride fast on it (like winning races) or feel confortable as a normal customer riding it You feel somehow higher then multiple champion. This fussiness makes 996/998/999/1098/1198 a unique beast which You win it or bin it.

About Rossi on Yamaha in 2004, he just had stepped in at the right time and with Burgess they just set up revised M1 properly. They had never done any develope work on it (like increasing frame flexibilty, etc) as all features were already done by Yamaha, they just found front airtake must be made with flexible material couse M1 was diving frontaly when braking. I guess if Rossi would switch to Suzuki this year even with their current miserly involvement in racing area we could still see a drastic move of GSVR to the constant top 5 and VR46 would keep or even increase its legendary story.

I think that the carbon frame is gonna be in the skip, but, JB and VR will try EVERYTHING to get it to work before that happens. My theory is that they are gonna give it till the end of the season. If no joy, it's out. I also reckon Bologna is already working on a metal frame.

"Rossi left because teammate Jorge was beating him repeatedly (not good for the VR46 business/legend) and being younger offers potentially more future championships."

Or maybe the team was giving a better support to Jorge, which is younger.

In the 4 wheel world you find the same story : WRC, Sebastien Loeb betrayed by his team, they are trying to push up the younger driver. Why ? Because money wise it's a better investment than a great talented but OLD driver.

The teams don't care about the legend, they care about money. The drivers care about legend, they don't -necessarily- care about money.

also, didn't rossi have a broken leg last year while lorenzo was beating him repeatedly...

oh yeah.. recovering from a broken leg, not that big of a deal.

Lorenzo is fast though, but time will tell who is really a cut above the rest (Spies, Stoner, Pedrosa, SuperSic...maybe hopkins will be back) basically they all have a long way to go before they can say they won x amount of championships on x amount of bikes to be the next legend.

"Lorenzo is fast though, but time will tell who is really a cut above the rest (Spies, Stoner, Pedrosa, SuperSic...maybe hopkins will be back) basically they all have a long way to go before they can say they won x amount of championships on x amount of bikes to be the next legend."

Very well said that man. People are far too quick to write VR off. And, I for one am hoping he rubs their f*cking noses in it BIG TIME.

I think Rossi enjoyed the Honda chassis more than anything else he's ridden, and can afford to start up his "own team." He obviously isn't enjoying the Ducati, but at the same time won the championship on the Yamaha that everyone said couldn't be won on. The guy doesn't need the cash, and simply wants to enjoy the ride. Can you blame him? Doing what you love is the all time dream.